1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for the unambiguous personal association of at least one autonomous storage unit with at least one player in a score keeping device, in order to store at least one status of a game, or a player qualification.
2. Description of Related Art
A method for storing a game score, a score keeping device, and a computer device performing the method and representing the score keeping device, are known from DE 100 63 412 A1. With the method described therein, or the devices performing this method, it is possible to store game scores in games with several players, with a structure or rule system of any complexity, in an objective and secure manner. The method relieves the players of the often cumbersome, error prone management tasks, associated with complex games, which substantially degrade the enjoyment of the game. Such a method is advantageous, in particular, when the players develop game situations over a long period of time, and when they enrich the game situation increasingly with new game elements, thus continuously increasing its complexity.
The situation is present, in particular, in role- or fantasy games. In such games, which are often being played in computer networks, but which are also partially executed through a physical game plan, e.g. in connection with game cards exchanged by the players, particular players control a series of game status through certain game figures, or certain game situations. Additionally, they also create game figures, or game characters, or game situations, or they thus combine certain predetermined base features in the context of the game operation.
Thus e.g. trading card games, like e.g. the known Pokemon® card game, are customary, in which cards are distributed, representing game figures with certain features, e.g. “good” and “bad” fantasy monsters or robots with predetermined particularities and features, wherein these game figures, on the one hand, interact in a predetermined manner with other game figures, and, on the other hand, can be combined into new game figures in the context of the game operation, this means they are subject to a “mutation”, operated by the players.
The game figures thus created, this means the “mutated creatures”, increasingly represent, in combination with these game operations, the particular skill or cunning of the respective player, who has created this figure and operates it. The player thus moves into the identity of the game figure, and the combats performed in the framework of the game between his figure and other competing figures thus constitute combats showing the individual fantasies and skills of the player in a representative manner. The game figures thus assume quasi “individual features”. They are not only figures in a game, but they increasingly refer to their owners. This in particular constitutes the allure of such games.
The attractiveness and the allure of such games is already increased by the fact that the player can loan or sell his “creations” to other players in the context of the game operation and the rules of the game, or can “trade” them in another manner. As the creator of the figure, he certainly claims authorship in some manner, and, therefore, it is mandatory to provide the created game figure with a protection, which indicates his authorship. In fantasy games, which are played in real life, this task is performed by a game manager, which registers the game figures and acts as a referee in case of an argument. It is appreciated that this task can become increasingly complex and confusing, the longer the game lasts. Errors and unclear situations, but also willful manipulations, thus cannot be excluded.
In the advantageous method cited in the said Patent document, such a game manager function is not provided. The players can certainly protect their game figures or game scores through protecting their personal access data, and thus their game figures, or game situations through entry of a password, a PIN, or biometric data, from unauthorized access. These means, however, must not play a role in the game operation, in particular, they must not be disclosed. While a game or its rules, and the game situations resulting there from, can basically be completely unclear, arbitrary, treacherous and conniving, thus constituting the main attraction of the game in many cases, it is absolutely necessary at the system level, this means in particular in a game console or the network game, that the system integrity, and thus the physical prerequisite for performing the game is maintained and not manipulated. Thus it is prohibited for this reason right from the beginning, to integrate the safety means disclosed or proposed in said Patent document, into the game operation in any way whatsoever, or to soften them only in some respect, since the system integrity is thus compromised.
The score keeping device according to DE 100 63 412 A1 thus lacks an authority, which is independent and strictly separated from the safety devices of the system, which e.g. monitors the allocation of the game figures at game level, thus managing the game and thus controlling it in a unambiguous manner in the sense of the previously agreed rules of the game. The said score keeping device, or the method, control a game operation, which is basically without hierarchies, but also rigid. It does not provide a referee or management function, acting from within the game. Therefore, it does not comply at all with the increased requirements of demanding fantasy- or role games.